I was lucky enough to experience my first moon cake with our lovely Chinese friend. She explained it to me that the Chinese festival which celebrates the year's harvest is just as important as their new year. To properly celebrate the season, her mother ships special moon cakes from New York every year!

They came in a beautiful box with a description for each cake's very distinguished flavor. To make it even more special, we paired each cake with a specific oolong tea or green tea.

Very ceremonial treat.

The colors and shapes of these cakes were absolutely gorgeous... but I couldn't quite connect the color of the cake with a certain flavor in my head (brown did not mean chocolate! It was a flavor of oolong tea) so each bite felt like a mini adventure.

Being constantly introduced to new cultures... makes living in LA all worthwhile:)

Monday, September 27, 2010

Last weekend we received a special card from my friend in NY. It was for little roo's 100th birthday. I love how hand drawn elements make the tag inspired card be so personal. It's definitely a keepsake!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Each week we discover something new in her and it's so much fun... she has really become my muse... so I thought I should dedicate one post/week to update how she is doing and what I have learned as a new mama.

Maybe one week it's a collection of a few photos... and other week... a little story about her. I hope it brightens up your weekend:)

This week she has discovered that she can put her two hands together. Whenever she has a moment, she sits politely on mama's lap crossing her fingers... absorbing the whole world around her. I can also tell she is making a huge leap on her emotional growth. She has expanded the library of expressions tremendously which means she really lets us know when she is happy (or not). Sometimes she even looks like she is telling me a joke (with "isn't it so funny, mama?" look on her face) - it melts my heart:)

Everyday I am in awe of her growth... and so happy to be spending this quality time with her.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Throughout the week, I take tons of pictures. Some make it to this blog and some don't... mainly because they don't fit with what I write about. But I still take these photos because they inspire me and I want to capture these moments.

So I have been thinking of the way to share these photos... and decided to do a weekly wrap up of photo inspiration board on Wednesday.

I am thinking that it will be a lovely opportunity to open my window to yours. What do you think?

This week we are enjoying a cooler weather here in LA. I love how photos taken on a gloomy day come out so differently from the ones taken on a sunny day. It feels like I am living in a different city.

If you are posting a photo collage that shares your inspiration..., can you leave me a link? I would love to visit your world too!

p.s. I have another series I am dying to start from this Friday. More coming in a few days:)

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Celebrating the 100th day is important in Japan (as well as many countries in Asia). Japanese family prepare elaborate dishes and pretend to feed the baby. This traditional ceremony promises the abundant food for rest of the baby's life.

... and you know how important it is for me to have the abundant food for our little roo...

After doing some research, I figured it would be bit difficult to line up the traditional Japanese recipe so we opted for our very special "German-ese" menu. I cooked some Japanese food, hubby cooked some German food... and "voila!"... we had a tray full of mix & match dishes from both cultures.

Little roo gave some funny faces when the spoon full of food touched her lips but she played the baby role of ritual very well.

I am so thankful to have spent the last 100 days with our little roo... I hope she will always be surrounded by a variety of foods from many different cultures.

And the fun part? We got to enjoy all the dishes afterward with close friends and it was special:)From left to right: seaweed salad, olives, salmon tartar on top of the potato pancakes with mastard/dill sauce, rice ball, Japanese style hamburger, cucumber dill salad (thanks Susan!) For drinks, we had Japanese beer and red wine.

During the week I make my own breakfast parfait with fruit, yogurt and granola (yeah. it hits my sweet teeth while being healthy) but some Sundays are different. I love it when hubby replies to me by saying, "I can make you a breakfast".

This is his specialty.

"A la carte muffin platter"

Some sweet, some salty... and some cheesy. Beautiful colors on white plates...and let's not forget a cup of fluffy milk with a few drops of coffee.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

I like the concept very much so I am filling my weekend with many happy thoughts.

Hanging out at the pool house where my friend is renting a vacation home was nice. I can't believe it's only 10 minutes away from my home. You can find Vacation Rental by Owner here. Thank you Suzanne for the link!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

There is something about collecting recipe from family... don't you agree?

It was fun peeking into Heidi's old recipe book while she was here (yeah... I know. I peeked into pretty much everything she brought in her suitcase.)

She shared some of her cake recipe with me and here is one of my favorite!

"Tart au citron"

Don't you just love the French name? Second photo is the recipe itself. Left one is written by Heidi and the right one by me. My recipe always end up being very visual... with doodles and snap shots of the food itself.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

It has been taking some time to write this post. I have been thinking about it for a few days.

On Sunday three of us were driving on the freeway to meet some friends for a picnic. On our way to the park, we faced a near collision. Out of nowhere a small car in front of us lost its control and started spinning 360°. I was in the back seat with my little roo and all I could do was to hold on to her car seat as tightly as possible. Thankfully... we dodged the bullet calmly and no one on the freeway was hurt.

It was scary.

The life flashed back in those split seconds.

At that time we quickly blushed off what happened so that we could enjoy our picnic...

Only when we sat down at our dinner table on the same night, I broke down.

I was 12 when my little brother passed away because of a car accident. Since then I have learned how to deal with the concept of life as a child and as a daughter. It has been nearly 20 years and I thought I knew better... but now that I myself became a mother, I am frightened to even imagine what my mother had to go through and is still going through today.

Sometimes the fragility of life brutally scares me because of the amount of love I feel for my little roo and knowing the pure fact that anything could happen to any of us at any given time.

What happened on the freeway was a chilling reminder of that...

That night my hubby and I talked about Norm, little roo, Norm's family, my parents... and us for a long time.

I have barely dealt and processed with what happened to Norm and there really isn't any "patch-it-all" solution to this and I would be foolish to be looking for one...

but I came out of the night reassuring myself that I need to be genuinely content with the idea of "everything happens for a reason" even when I go through a rough patch of life... It is difficult to feel that way when things are hard... but I have to believe in it.

I can never EVER fear life even though some of the knowledge we gain as we grow... leads us to a scary thought.

I don't want to be the one who looks back in life and regrets of things I hesitated... so I am going to live my life like there is no end.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

My in-laws left our home on Tuesday morning. First it felt like our house was little too big for 2+ people... but we are slowly molding ourselves back into the normal routines.

Lats two weeks with them was so insightful. They are not only kind but also very mature.

Mature meaning they know what they want in their lives.

I noticed that they never doubt their decisions (from small decisions like what to eat for breakfast to the big one... like how to spend time during their next vacation). And because they don't doubt their decisions, they are immersed into the task at hand. They don't waste time wondering "should I...?" and they get a lot of stuff done in a day (and still have time for coffee and cake in the afternoon:).

I understand that the focus in life only comes from experience and it takes time and diligence to sharpen the lens.

I am going to do my best to continue sharpening my lens... everyday... so that I can make decisions that are true to myself and my life.

Monday, September 6, 2010

It's a must have in the afternoon. Homemade cake and a cup of coffee with fluffed milk.

Four of us (me+hubby+in-laws) are busy doing our own stuff during the day so it's nice to have this afternoon cake moment to gather around the table and strategize the evening including the very important dinner plan.

It's like an intermission of the day.

I should certainly keep this ritual... especially on the weekend even after my lovely in-laws leave our home tomorrow.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Heidi, my mother-in-law, always carries her special sketchbook when she travels. Nicely tacked into a little pouch she has made... specially for her book.

It's so classy.

So I asked her for a permission to take a few snapshots.

Aren't they lovely?

p.s. late last night the boys came back safely from the Black Rock City.

Michael, my father-in-law, told us that he had the best experience he had ever had in last 73 years. It was so surreal for him to see something that was so out of this planet! He also told us, "the parameter of the city is 5km and it is filled with thousands of adventures." Apparently he did not sleep at all while he was there... looking and filming things every night until 4 or 5 am.

I know... he is really cute.
She made this pouch while she was staying in India. Finished with her signature stitched.
The book was a gift from her long time friend... given to her in 1996. Heidi told me that the note from her friend says something along the line of, "put all your ideas you keep on small papers here in this book..."
This page was filled by her friend when Heidi received her book. They went to art school together in their 20's. These are photos of Heidi... Isn't she stunningly beautiful? Now I know where my little roo gets her prettiness from.
She is a painter so these are her small comps.
Whenever she travels, she collects flower/leaf from the destination.
These are from Kyoto:)
I like this photo she took. She told me that it's about 5 ugly animals traveling together.